Wrecking your chances at publicity

Recently I got a call from one of those shameless self-promoters I always advise people to be. Except for that fact that this guy took promotion to be the same as aggression. Don’t do this.

He called to tell me about his event and the conversation went like this:

“Hi, my name is Dumb Idiot and every year I have (this event,) and its significant because 20 years ago my wife and I got married at (this place) and this year we are holding (this event) with a theme reflecting our engagement.”

I know huh? Makes no sense, even if I hadn’t removed the name of the event.

He continued:

“Every year (our competing newspaper) puts us on the front page and this year we thought we’d give you guys a shot. We get like a thousand people here every year and we’re all over the TV news.”

So rule number 1:
NEVER bring up the competition to a media outlet in a way that suggests you are pitting them against one another.

Rule number 2:
DON’T belittle the media outlet you are pitching by saying something similar to “this year we thought we’d give you guys a shot.”

So then I said:
“We generally, don’t cover (this type of event) however, this year we made an exception and did, and it’s on the cover of this week’s paper.”

And he said:
“Well we get thousands of people out here, and we’re always on the front page of (competing paper) and the TV news, and in fact they are going to be out here this weekend.”

So rule number 3:
ALWAYS look at the media outlet you are pitching. Even if you just scan the last couple of weeks. At minimum look at that day or that week’s news to make sure you aren’t pitching something they have just covered.

After I told him we wouldn’t be covering the event he continued,

“Well then, I’ll just have (competing paper) come out and you can look for it in their paper.”
“You should really come out though.”

And rule number 4:
NEVER get so cocky that you tell a reporter to look in their competition’s paper to read about the subject.

Despite the fact this guy was just completely oblivious, there’s a lot to learn from him in terms of pitching a story to the media. There’s really no reason to go about it this way. Reporters will either see the merit in the story you are pitching or not, they will either have room for it or not, they will sometimes have already reported on the topic and may not want to duplicate the content. Whatever it is, don’t take it personal. Think about building a long term relationship with the reporter and eventually you will get the press you are after. What kind of experiences have you had with reporters?